Immigration Reform Scams

I’m not surprised that this is happening, and I wonder if confusion among some immigrants has been compounded by the landmark gay rights rulings that occurred around the same time the comprehensive immigration reform bill passed in the Senate. The press covered the Senate passage as a victory (which it was), but for those who do not follow the inner workings of the legislative process closely—and/or who are unfamiliar with our legislative process in general—it may have appeared that something with the country’s immigration laws and procedures had suddenly changed, when in fact we are just one step along in what may be a long (and possibly futile) process to make those changes.

Unlike legislation, which not only has to pass both the Senate and the House, and then be signed by the president, (and even then, may have implementation dates far off in the future, like most of the provisions in the Affordable Care Act), SCOTUS rulings can have an immediate impact on policy, as it did with the gay rights cases, and I can understand why it might have appeared that something similar was happening with immigration policy, based on the understandable excitement over the passage of the Senate bill.